Chapter POLIGAR to POLONGA of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

POLIGAR to POLONGA

[POLIGAR, s. A large breed of dogs found in S. India. “The Polygar dog is large and powerful, and is peculiar in being without hair” (Balfour, Cycl. i. 568).]

[1853.—“It was evident that the original breed had been crossed with the bull-dog, or the large Poligar of India.”—Campbell, Old Forest Ranger, 3rd ed. p. 12.]

POLLAM, s. Tam. palaiyam; Tel. palemu; (see under POLIGAR). 1783.—“The principal reason which they assigned against the extirpation of the polygars (see POLIGAR) was that the weavers were protected in their fortresses. They might have added, that the Company itself which stung them to death, had been warmed in the bosom of these unfortunate princes; for on the taking of Madras by the French, it was in their hospitable pollams that most of the inhabitants found refuge and protection.”—Burke’s Speech on Fox’s E. I. Bill, in Works, iii. 488.

1795.—“Having submitted the general remarks on the Pollams I shall proceed to observe that in general the conduct of the Poligars is much better than could be expected from a race of men, who have hitherto been excluded from those advantages, which almost always attend conquered countries, an intercourse with their conquerors. With the exception of a very few, when I arrived they had never seen a European. …”—Report on Dindigal, by Mr. Wynch, quoted in Nelson’s Madura, Pt. iv. p. 15.

POLO, s. The game of hockey on horseback, introduced of late years into England, under this name, which comes from Balti; polo being properly in the language of that region the ball used in the game. The game thus lately revived was once known and practised (though in various forms) from Provence to the borders of China (see CHICANE). It h ad continued to exist down to our own day, it would seem, only nea r the extreme East and the extreme West of the Himalaya, viz. at Manipur in the East (between Cachar and Burma), and on the West in the high valley of the Indus (in Ladak, Balti, Astor and Gilgit, and extending into Chitral). From the former it was first adopted by our countrymen at Calcutta, and a little later (about 1864) it was introduced into the Punjab, almost simultaneously from the Lower Provi nces and from Kashmir, where the summer visitors had taken it up. It was first played in England, it would seem at Aldershot, in July 1871, and in August of the same year at Dublin in the Phœnix Park. The next year it was played in many places.¹ But the first mention we can find in the Times is a notice of a match at Lillie-Bridge, July 11, 1874, in the next day’s paper. There is mention of the game in the Illustrated London News of July 20, 1872, where it is treated as a new invention by British officers in India. [According to the author of the Badminton Library treatise on the game, it was adopted by Lieut. Sherer in 1854, and a club was formed in 1859. The same writer fixes its introduction into the Punjab and N.W.P. in 1861–62. See also an article in Baily’s Magazine on “The Early History of Polo” (June 1890). The Central Asian form is described, under the name of Baiga or Kok-büra, ‘grey wolf,’ by Schuyler (Turkistan, i. 268 seqq.) and that in Dardistan by Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, 84 seqq.).] In Ladak it is not indigenous, but an introduction from Baltistan. See a careful and interesting account of the game of those parts in Mr. F. Drew’s excellent book, The Jummoo and Kashmir Territories, 1875, pp. 380–392.

We learn from Professor Tylor that the game exists still in Japan, and a very curious circumstance is that the polo racket, just as that described by Jo. Cinnamus in the extract under CHICANE has survived there. [See Chamberlain, Things Japanese, 3rd ed. 333 seqq.]

1835.—“The ponies of Muneepoor hold a very conspicuous rank in the estimation of the inhabitants. … The national game of Hockey, which is played by every male of the country capable of sitting a horse, renders them all expert equestrians; and it was by men and horses so trained, that the princes of Muneepoor were able for many years not only to repel the aggressions of the Burmahs, but to save the whole country … and plant their banners on the banks of the Irrawattee.”—Pemberton’s Report on the E. Frontier of Br. India, 31–32.

1838.—“At Shighur I first saw the game of the Chaughán, which was played the day after our arrival on the Mydan or plain laid out expressly for the purpose. … It is in fact hocky on horseback. The ball, which is larger than a cricket ball, is only a globe made of a kind of willow-wood, and is called in Tibeti ‘Pulu.’ … I can conceive that the Chaughán requires only to be seen to be played. It is the fit sport of an equestrian nation. … The game is played at almost every valley in Little Tibet and the adjoining countries … Ladakh, Yessen, Chitral, &c.; and I should recommend it to be tried on the Hippodrome at Bayswater. …”—Vigne, Travels in Kashmir, Ladakh, Iskardo, &c. (1842), ii. 289–392.

1848.—“An assembly